12-storey blocks to replace timber houses at Kangaroo Pt

Kangaroo Point residents will meet on Thursday to discuss rezoning plans that would see high-density apartment blocks in the Raymond Park area.

Local councillor Helen Abrahams said today the meeting will be held to provide details on the council’s plans, which could see old tin and timber houses in the area replaced by eight and 12-storey apartment buildings.

“It’s a simple information meeting. We’re giving people the ability to know what others think,” she said.

A similar meeting in March saw 80 residents come out to show their concern about character houses in the area being lost to development, she said.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said today while the higher density zoning could mean a loss of some older houses, there were only isolated tin and timber houses in the area.

Cr Newman said the rezoning was important for the council to meet its obligation to provide 156,000 new dwellings under the State Government’s South East Queensland Regional Plan.

He attacked Labor councillors for not supporting their state counterparts, and said protests like the Kangaroo Point meeting had been initiated by the Labor Party.

“These people won’t even back the Premier on her plans,” he said.

But Cr Abrahams said she had counted more than a hundred such houses in the area around Raymond Park.

“There are 155 tin and timber dwellings that are going to lose their protection,” she said.

She said high-density housing took away from the sense of community, which was a reason many residents bought properties in the area in the first place.

Cr Abrahams said the meeting was held a response to community concerns, and the community was not against all development in the area.

“The community is not saying ‘No, we don’t want density’,” she said.

She said there had been a number of developments which the community has not fought, including the high-density rezoning of the Woollongabba Central area.

The meeting will be held at the Pineapple Hotel, at 7:30 this Thursday.